Ammunition



Feb. 7, 1933. o. V.-HUFFMAN AMMUNITION Filed March 28, 1931.

lNVENTOR @do-Zf lax/ 6 ATTORNEY? I Patented Feb. 7, 1933 or'ro v. HUFFMAN, OF BEnronn nILLs, NEW YORK,

V AMMUNITION Application filed March 26, 1931. Serial No. 525,420.

This invention relates to improvements in ammunition, and is more particularly directed to the provision of an ammunition which is capable when fired from any gun or small arm of being directed a predetermined amount from the normal line of flight at the will of the operator without altering the position of the firing device.

t is an object of this invention to provide 19 an ammunition which when fired from any gun or firearm will deviate from the normal line of flight, and it is a. further object and advantage of this invention to provide means for prcdetermining the amount of deviation from the normal line of flight of a missile fired from any gun or firearm, and furthermore it is within the province of this same invention to embody means for controlling the direction of the line of flight.

A still further object and advantage of this invention lies in the fact that the presentday ordnance consisting of guns and small arms may be used with such ammunition to obtain its peculiar properties without any change in design. It is at once apparent that the saving effected and the confusion prevented in such an object is of great value.

A feature of this invention is that the peculiar behavior of the ammunition of this invention is due solely to changes made in the ammunition and furthermore these changes require little, if any, more expense than would be required in making the standard ammunitions.

In the following specification, which will elaborate and describe the working out of the above objects and features, we shall use the term bullet to mean the pellet r mis- 40 sile, commonly of lead or steel, which is discharged from the muzzle of the gun and strikes the target or object fired at. The term shell shall include the brass cup in which the bullet is set, the shell containing the powder charge for projecting the bullet and the primer. It is well known that the prim er may be either of the center fire or of the rim fire type. In the ammunitions for large guns, it is common-to use a projectile with hag powder,so that no shell, as such, is

used, butsuch a missile also lies within-the comprehension of this invention. i

In the present-day art, it is not uncommon to find bullets which are improperly designed, or in which some mechanical de-; fect is'incorporated, becoming what is known as partially upset-at the instant the bullet clears'the muzzle of the discharging piece. The technical term given to such a bullet is that it has kitedfor has become upset, meaning that its line of flight deviates from the normal line of flight to the extent that the point of the bullet was bent on emergence from the muzzle. It will continue in its divergent path subject to the same forces ofexterior ballistics that would be present had it gone out normally. So far as we have been able to discover, all ammunition makers have tried and succeeded to the limit of practicability in preventing such upsetting of a bullet as it leavesthe muzzle of the gun. There are several reasons for this, the main one being that no one was able to tell just. where such a bullet would strike. The consequent danger of such a wild flight is obvious.

This invention diametrically departs from such a course and distinctly sets out to pro vide an ammunition which, as set out above, will deviatea predetermined amountfrom the normal line of flight and will at the same time be under the control of the man firing the gun as to the direction of the line of flight. It will be observed at once that the bullet may go out anywhere around a 360 circle perpendicular to the barrel of the firearm and such emergence is commonly designated in terms found on a clock dial, so that one speaks of a bullet going out at 12 oclock,

3 oclock, 6 oclock, 9 oclock and so on, in- D dicating a flight upward, to the right, downward, to the left, and so on. r

-In accordance with this invention, there were two problems whichimmediately arose. The first was the determination of the angu- 9 larity of the path of the ammunition of this invention to the path of a normal line of flight traced, let us say, byv a standard bullet unchanged along the lines to be set out in our invention. The second problem dealt with lot the control of the line of flight. Since We have determined the angularity of the flight line, we also desire to know which direction the bullet will take; in other words, in what direction the bullet Will leave the muzzle or go out. The peculiar property allowing a man firing an ordinary gun to direct bullets at will in several directions, while the fires arm is kept in the same position, is novel and useful, as will be explained hereinafter.

The ordinary gun-cartridge or projectile consists of the bullet, the shell containing the powder, and the primer. In carrying out this invention, the parts retain their func tional relationship and in addition the shell is not changed mechanically. The same is not true of the bullet, however, and one way which we have found to upset or cause the bullet to kite as it leaves themuzzle of the gun is to bevel the base, in contradistinction to the point, of the bullet. Relative inclinations of thebevel on the base of the bullet will determine. relative angularities ofiits path of flight to the normal'path of flight. In all.events, it is preferable, to.have the complete and entire bevel on that portion of, the bullet which is gripped within the shell, it being obvious that, if the bevel extended above the edge of the shell, some powder 'might escape in the handling of that car-.

tridge. Although projectiles; forv large 7 guns often have no shells as such, itis still part of this invention tolbevel thebase of such a missile to change its line of flight.

i It has also been found that'the direction of upsetting at the instant the bullet emerges from themuzzle is directly related to the position of the bevel in the barrel, since inall cases, as thebullet leaves the muzzle, itspoint will tip, away from the normal line of, flight a certain amount determined by the inclination ofythe bevelonthe base, which can be made any inclination within reasonable limits. Thus it may be seen that we can take the ordinary bullet and by placing a certain beveled face thereon of distinct inclination to the axis of the-bullet, we can exactly and precisely determinethe deviation of vthat bu'llets path after leaving the gun from what we will .call the normal line of flight-by experiment or otherwise. If we knew so much and no more, we would still not know what direction the bullet was going to take, although we did know the deviation its line of flight would have. The solution of this second problem lay in exactly determining the rotary set of the shell, and consequently the bullet, in the breech chamberof the firing gun; so that, if we know that. when the shell i's -set in a certain position the'bullet will go out at 12 oclock, we also know that a'similar bullet'set 180 from the position of the first in the same breech chamber will go out at 6 'oclock, that isto say, downward. Thus, theoperator, by controlwe desire.

ling the rotary set of a cartridge or piece of ammunition in the firing chamber of the gun or firearms may exactly determine in What direction the bullet will go out, the deviation having previously been predetermined in the manufacture of the bullet. It is true that with differing rifling surfaces of different types of, firearms,- we will need differentindicia to indicate the set to be giventhe ammunition in order that it may go out where he principles of this invention, having been explained herein and herein- "after, make such a. task a simple one for skilled testing men this art.

One theory which we advance as our understanding of the behavior ofammunition, although we do not warrant it to be such, is that as the bullet is pushed along in the rifle or firearm barrel by the propelling axis, and

just as the foremost edge of the bevel face on the base of the bullet emerges from the muzzle, the gases adjacent that beveled face suffer a loss in pressure not instantaneously shared by the gases shoving on the remaining portion of the base of the bullet, to cause the point of that bullet to tip toward the plane of: The amount of tipping,

the beveled face. we think, will be determined by the powder charge which is, for all practical effects, kept constant in ammunition of the same type. Knowing the rifling of the firearm device we are dealing with,we can by simple means so set the bevel face ofthe bullet in the firing chamber relatively to obtain any desired direction of flight. Indeed, it is immaterial in this invention just how the bullet is caused to. deviate, how much it deviates, and how the direction of the line of flight of such deviated bullet is controlled, because we have gone directly inthe face of established principles of prior and present practice in this art.

In order to enable, one to more fully under- I stand theadvantages of such an ammunition and; its usefulness, we are going to set out some oases'in which the use of our ammunition, besides'beingvnew, is of great practical value. -On the modern battleship,- there are quite often found what are known as turret barbettes over which thevarious mounted naval guns fire. It is quite possible and oft-. times probable that the arc of swing of such guns would not be. sufficient for immediate needs as intime of battle, in which case a pro jectile following our invention could be inserted in the breech of the guns and fired, and the extra angularity obtained from theammunition itself combined with the angular riously endanger or hit the object they were aiming at. The invention will be found of use also in such instances as shooting into trenches or out of the same and over or around corners with less exposure of the person firing the gun. It is to be expected that new uses will constantly arise all the time to which this invention can be applied.

The principles of this invention are equally applicable to all sizes and types of ordnance and small arm ammunition, as may be appreciated from the objects and aims which are set out in this preamble. Reference to the drawing will now be made to more fully explain the results and purposes of this invention.

7 Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the change of trajectory resulting from use of a bullet formed according to the invention.

Figs. 2 and 3 show different views of a bullet shaped in accordance with the invention.

Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 illustrate methods of predetermining the direction of divergence of the trajectory.

Figure 1 shows a rifle barrel 10 with its normal line of flight 11, drawn as a straight line for purposes of illustration though actually it is in the form of a modified parabola, traced over to a simple target 12. For the present purposes of illustration, the trajectory of every line of flight is not pictured, although present. With our ammunition inserted in the firing chamber of the rifle 10 in its full line position, we can obtain, let us say, a line of flight l3 diverging considerably from the normal line of flight 11. In fact, we obtain the same effect as if gun 10 was pivoted at the muzzle 14 and swung down to dotted position 15 before firing. It is easy to visualize situations in which the firearms or gun will be unable to be moved in such manner, and it is very largely in such cases that the advantages and results of our invention are so strikingly manifest. In the pres ent instance, shown in Fig. l, the bullet is going out at what is commonly known as 12 oclock; that is, directly upwards, with a certain angle of deviation formed between the two lines of flight 11 and 13 predetermined by the bevel inclination on the base of the bullet fired from gun 10.

As was set out above, however, just deter mining the angle of deviation is not in any sense the solution of the entire problem, and we must also determine the rotary set of the cartridge in the firing chamber of gun 10, taking into account its rifling characteristics, before we can make that bullet trace line of flight 13 at 12 oclock. In Figs. 2 and 3, we show two right angle elevations of a bullet 16 with its beveled face 17 on the base 18 thereof. The reduced neck 19 is usually gripped by the upper edge of the brass shell in the assembled cartridge. It is the position of this face 17 which when placed in the firs ing chamber of the gun usually determines in what direction it will go out, and it is the inclination of this same face 17' to the axis of the bullet which will determine the-amount of deviation.

. Having previously made the bevelon the base of the bullet, we have determined the magnitude of our divergent line of flight, and we must determine in turn which line of flight our bullet is going to take around the 360? clock dial. If such rotary set ofthe shell in the breech chamber is not effected, it will be seen that the bullet may take any lineof flight considered as an element of the cone generated by line of flight 13. as a'gen'e1:a--v trix swinging about normal line of. flight 11 as an axis so that the bullet would havean infinite number of lines of flight around this developed cone of flight. Trajectory-linthe generating of this cone has also not been included for purposes of simplicity. The matter of determining the rotary set ofthexshell in the firing chamber of the cone or small arm presents relatively little difiiculty, however, and the various methods which were slightly disclosed in the preamble will now be more fully developed.

In Fig. 4, we see the cross section of the breech of the rifle barrel 10 with the countersunk portion 20 abutting the. flange of shell 21, which in this instance happens to be a center fire cartridge. A slight scratch 22 on portion 20 of the rifle is registered by the man firing the gun with a similar scratch 23 on the base of the shell 21. The divergence of the bullet having previously been determined and the rotary set of the bullet in the firing chamber having been exactly made, the operator is able to tell just where his bullet will strike. In place of the scratches 22 and 23, we may, of course, employ grooves, letters, or figures which will permit the same identification as to the position of the bevel face-Within the shell. Thus in Fig. 4, with the scratches in such position, the bullet, let us say for purposes of argument, will go out at 12 oclock. The operator then knows that if scratch 23 is placed approximately to the right of scratch 22, the bullet will go .out at 3 oclock and so on. w

A somewhat similar arrangement is presented in Fig. 5, in which a small knob 24 adjacent the flange on the base of the shell 21 fits into a notchor groove 25 in portior 1 20 of the rifle to obtain the same effect in determining the rotary set of the bullet. There may be, of course, several such grooves around the periphery of chamber 20 to permit such a bullet embodying our invention to be fired where the marksman desires. Fig. 6 shows a square shell inserted intoa special square breech chamber with the registering scratch indicia 26, 27 to again determine the rotaryset of the bullet, its divergence having been previously determined. .In this i1- lustration, the bullet may take any one of four lines of flight.

Lastly, we come to the drawing inFig.-7 which shows the application oftwo Vernier sca1es28 and 29 inthe rifle chamber and on the shell respectively, such'calibration being provided in this case especially for those operators who can see the effect of their shot and may wish to change the rotary set of the succeeding. bullet a slight. but exactamount. These bullets when used'in machine guns are placed in predetermined position in the gun feeder orbelt, so that there will be automatic positioning in the barrel of the gun as the belt or feeder passes through. a

Thus this invention has taken any gun or small arm in present-day use and supplied it with an ammunition. which will depart from the normal line of flight. by a predetei mined amount,'and.whichwill take any direction in the developed cone of deviated flight at the will of the man firing the gun or small arm. The invention is entitled to. a broad construction in that it'runs' directly counter to established practice and principles, it is new and it is useful andflcapableof many changes embodying the spirit of the invention which is to be defined solely by the appended claims. 7

Iclaim:

1. A projectile comprising a head and a base in fixed relation and a single chamfered face on said base.

2. A projectile comprising ahead and a base in fixed relation cut by-an oblique plane to produce a single beveled surface, inclined to the axis of the projectile, on said base.

3. In combination a breech chamber, a projectile comprising a head and a base, an asymmetric, chamfered face on said'base, and

OTTO v. HUFFMAN.

means for determining the position of said projectile in said breech chamber.

- 4:. An 'ntegral bullet comprising a base 12nd an asymmetric, chamferedface onsaid ase.: I

I 5. In combination, a rifled gun, bulletpositioning means on saidgun, an integral bullet having :an asymmetric base and :complementary positioning means on said bullet whereby the rotaryset of the bullet in the gun may be determined with respect to said asymmetric'ibase'. i U

' :6. In combination, a rifled gunbarrel, a

bullettherefor having an asymmetric base, means for setting said bullet in the barrel with respect to said. base whereby a point which the bullet willv strike outside the axis of the gun is determined. 7. Incombinatioma rifled non-jointed projectileitherefor having a deformed base, means to determine the rotary set of said projectile in .said firing piece firing piece, a r 

